


Woods

by teuklberries



Series: Halloween Challenge [2]
Category: K-pop, NCT (Band), NCT 127 - Fandom
Genre: 31 Days Of Halloween, Chases, Episode: s01e11 Scarecrow, Halloween, Halloween Challenge, Horror, Implied Violence, Other, Rural Horror, Scarecrow - Freeform, Survival Horror, implied gore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:34:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26772253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teuklberries/pseuds/teuklberries
Summary: Johnny's car breaks down on a back road halfway through his road trip, but not to worry, there's a house just down that path over there.
Series: Halloween Challenge [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1949656
Kudos: 4





	Woods

**Author's Note:**

> welcome to day 2! yes this is where my 13 year old self shines through. see if you can guess what that means.  
> im surprised i made it to day 2.

The trees always look extra imposing at night, especially out in the back country of Indiana. The thick canopy of leaves obscured the twinkling stars above as Johnny's car travelled a little too fast around the millionth bend of the night, its old pistons hissing painfully under the pressure of carrying such a speed for so long. The radio blared a little too loud as usual, some non-descript classic rock song shaking the entire vehicle from the sheer force of its bass. 

Johnny sat comfortably in the drivers seat with his left hand resting on the steering wheel, tapping gently to the rhythm of the song that blared through his speakers, his rough fingertips catching ever so slightly on the smooth material covering the wheel. He had already been driving for 6 hours by now, maybe even longer, and the little side roads that lead into the woods were starting to look like great places to pull in and sleep for the night. 

He kept driving for a few minutes, glancing at the trees every so often, watching as their branches became spooky shadows in the headlights, resembling long bony fingers as they stretched and moved along the beaten up tarmac before disappearing for good. Johnny sighed and hit the gas pedal even harder, hoping that maybe he would come across a little cornfield town that he could park up and sleep in, rather than a creepy off road in the middle of a very dense patch of woodland. The shadows began to move faster, each branch flashing by and disappearing in a matter of seconds as the car carried on around yet another bend, still obscured from the rest of the world by a thick canopy of leaves. Each small rock in the path of each wheel causing the whole vehicle to lift from the ground a little and land with an uncomfortable jiggle that shook Johnny's body a little more than it should have. 

Suddenly, a loud _CLUNK_ came from somewhere deep within the engine, causing the car to swerve from side to side and startling Johnny out of his comfortable half-daydream. 

"Shit, now? NOW?" Johnny said to no one but himself, quickly adjusting his loose posture. He fumbled with the steering wheel for a second before he finally turned the car to face the closest side track that sat beside the main road, only just managing to safely stop the car beside a large oak tree. The car juddered to a halt and Johnny reached below the dash, fumbling for the keys in the dark, finally killing the engine as soon as his hand clasped the thick black key that sat nestled tightly in the ignition. He sat quietly for a second, then groaned and lightly banged his head against the top of the steering wheel, frustrated with the shit luck he had been handed by whatever force controlled the universe. 

"Phone... Phone..." Johnny muttered to himself as he fumbled around in the dark, his hands groping the smooth leather seat beside him in search of his phone. After a minute of blind groping he finally found his phone, abandoned on the far side of the seat amongst other miscellaneous items that he had collected through his drive. Relief washed over Johnny as he sat up straight once again, his phone grasped tightly in his hand. He ran his fingers over the rectangular screen, searching for the home button, his movements becoming just a little aggressive as he began to lose patience with the entire situation. After some time spend blindly feeling the screen of the phone Johnny sighed in relief, having found the home button. He clicked it a few times, only to be met with a grey screen and an image of an empty battery. 

"Oh you HAVE to be kidding..." Johnny groaned in exasperation, throwing his phone back onto the seat he had just retrieved it from. He sat quietly for a minute to contemplate his options, his fingers tapping on the dash rhythmically. After a minute of contemplating Johnny threw open his door and stepped out into the night, a shiver making its way down his body as the cold air hit for the first time. The gentle breeze caressed his hair as he stepped carefully around the car, his hand running along the bonnet for stability. As soon as he reached the front of the car, Johnny lifted the bonnet and propped it against the rod, a small light within the engine coming to life as he did so. He looked for a minute, lifting various flaps and gauges to try and identify the cause of the clunk and the swerving, to no avail. He stood up straight again and bit his lip, once again going over his options in his head, since all immediate hopes had been exhausted. 

Johnny turned to face the side street he had parked on once again, his curiosity piquing as his eyes locked onto a single street light close enough to walk to, but far enough that he hadn't noticed it at first. With no other options left, Johnny decided to walk down the dirt track, hoping and praying that the street light would lead him somewhere he could find help or maybe even somewhere he could crash for the night.   
  
The night air seemed to only get cooler, each passing breeze sending a shiver through Johnny's body, no matter how tightly he crossed his arms or pulled his jacket across his front to protect himself from the cold. Each step was careful, with extra care not to trip on a rock or a dip in the dirt, a physical injury was the last thing Johnny needed after all the stress the night had brought so far. 

Finally, after 5 minutes of careful walking, Johnny stood under the dim light cast out by the street light. A rusted sign had been precariously bolted to the neck of the street light, its faded text still somewhat readable. 

"Vidar Manor, _"_ Johnny mumbled to himself. The left end of the sign bore a painted on arrow, that pointed down the dirt path, urging the reader to carry on walking. Johnny turned to look in the direction the arrow pointed, squinting slightly in hopes of seeing better through the thick night ahead of him. He could _just_ make out the shadow of a large house far down the path, sitting slightly menacingly in the darkness, but still, it had to be worth a try, Johnny thought. 

He set off again, his steps more confident now that he had some kind of hope for a place to crash out. The closer he got, though, the less hope he held. The manor looked run down and decrepit, the walls coated in long vines and wilted flowers, some missing petals and some covered in holes from insects stopping to grab a snack. Johnny finally stopped a few meters from the ornate front doors, his hopes crushed once again. The doors looked as though they hadn't been opened in years, thick climbing plants covered the door knob and weaved through the hinges, rust at every corner, peeling paint, the whole works. 

Johnny sighed again, his shoulders falling. He stood in place for a moment and thought. Maybe there was a groundskeeper, or something? It was worth a try, he concluded. Johnny picked a random direction and set off, following the wall of the house closely, lest he get lost in the woods without realising until it's too late.

The back of the house looked just as run down as the front. Vines climbing the walls all the way to the roof, wilted flowers all the way around, broken windows, even. Johnny kept walking, desperately hoping for some groundskeeper hut that didn't look like the physical manifestation of tetanus he could hang out in until the sun came back up. He rounded the corner to the back of the house, but stopped suddenly when he noticed something that made his entire body break out in goosebumps. 

A scarecrow, tied to a tree behind the house. It's head looked like it was a thousand years old, each eye hole obscured by a thick coating of spider webbing and dirt, the once smiling mouth frayed at the edges, creating the illusion of a hundred spiky teeth. Johnny shuddered at the sight of the thing, his brain suddenly telling him he should get out as soon as possible. He shook his head lightly, annoyed at the bullshit survival instincts still built into him after all these evolutionary years. He walked a little closer and looked the scarecrow up and down, making note of its tattered clothing and the splintering stick that protruded from the bottom of it. The jacket looked like it had been made in the 50's. It had several large tears down the side, like something had clawed the fabric, or maybe someone had cut it on purpose. 

"You're one fugly motherfucker, dude." Johnny said to the scarecrow, his eyebrows furrowed in distaste. The scarecrow sat silently, of course, since it was just a bag of stuffing and some old clothes. Johnny stared at the scarecrow for another minute or two, feeling much less scared than he had when he had first seen it. 

"You need some eyes or some shit, dude. You look like hell." Johnny continued, his eyebrows still furrowed. He shook his head and ran a hand through his hair, embarrassed with himself even though he was the only person for miles. He shrugged and stepped past the scarecrow, back on his search for a groundskeeper, or something. After a few minutes of walking aimlessly with no luck, Johnny decided to just cut his losses and head back over to his car and sleep there for the night, reasoning with himself that he could walk along the road in the morning or wait for someone to drive by and try to flag them down for help. 

He turned back in the direction he had come from and began walking again, deciding it was safer to retrace his own steps than try to make a circuit and potentially end up lost. He walked over the fallen leaves and the twigs, crunching and cracking sounds echoing through the empty woods around him. He kept on and rounded the back of the house again, relaxing a little upon seeing the tree again, but stopping suddenly again when he noticed something wasn't right.   
  


The scarecrow wasn't there. 

Johnny stared at the tree in shock. There had without a doubt been a gross looking scarecrow tied to it not 5 minutes ago when he had first rounded the back of the house, he had seen it with his own two eyes. He had spoken to it, even. Johnny suddenly felt uneasy, as if he was being watched by someone or something, something lurking in the darkness that enveloped him. He took an apprehensive step toward the tree, reasoning with himself that maybe the scarecrow was just tied a little to the left and he hadn't noticed at first, but when Johnny made a full circle around the tree, not a scarecrow was in sight. 

Johnny suddenly felt even more uneasy. There had _definitely_ been a scarecrow tied to this tree. The only tree close to the house, the only tree not blended into the thick treeline. This left him with 2 possibilities. Either the scarecrow had moved by itself, or someone had moved the scarecrow. 

Johnny suddenly tensed up when he heard a twig snap behind him. He held his breath and listened, his pulse racing in his ears as his senses picked up all at once, his brain screaming at him to _fucking run._ He heard a second twig snap and immediately took off running toward the front of the house, his feet carrying him faster than he had ever ran before, adrenaline coursing through his veins. More twigs snapped behind him as he ran, the high pitched cracking echoing freakishly into the dark and sending pulses through Johnny's whole body. He kept running, even though he couldn't see his hand in front of his face, desperate to escape. He reached the front of the house and turned to run back down the trail to his car, but was stopped abruptly by something standing in the way of the path. 

Johnny hit the dirt below him with a grunt of pain, his hands grazing over rocks and his skin tearing open painfully. Johnny hissed in pain and looked up, his heart racing. 

In the middle of the path, stood the scarecrow, standing freely on its splintered stick. Johnny's eyes widened in fear as he looked up at its destroyed face, his worst fear suddenly coming alive in front of him. The mouth of the scarecrow was full of hundreds of thin, pointed teeth. The teeth looked like a hundred needles standing freely in the scarecrows mouth, their points sharp and dirty, covered in rust. 

Johnny choked on his own breath and scrambled to stand up, his bleeding hands forgotten as he pushed himself up and immediately ran in the opposite direction, heading for the obscured treeline. His breathing quickened as he ran, not stopping to look behind himself, his only focus being survival. He kept running but was stopped suddenly by a low hanging branch, obscured by the night, colliding with his forehead. 

Johnny hit the ground again, this time fully unconscious, his limbs hanging limply in the dirt and his consciousness suspended. His body laid in the dirt, surrounded by brambles and sharp twigs, some of which had pierced his sides and his clothes, staining them red with blood. His eyes had been stabbed brutally by smaller twigs that had been on the branch he had collided with, rendering his eyes useless and his face stained with a mixture of tears and thick, gunky blood. 

The night became silent again. No longer permeated by Johnny's heavy breaths or his thundering footsteps, snapping every branch they hit on their way. The tree behind the house remained empty, and the path that connected the house to the main road had become empty again, void of any people or even any scarecrows. 

But not to worry, there'll be a new scarecrow on the tree, come the morning. 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! i hope you enjoyed
> 
> kofi link: https://ko-fi.com/mars_127
> 
> curcious cat link: https://curiouscat.qa/tyongieberry


End file.
